


i'll see your heart and i'll raise you mine

by from



Series: blind date [2]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dating, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-19
Updated: 2017-10-19
Packaged: 2019-01-19 13:03:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12410799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/from/pseuds/from
Summary: it's the weekend their blind date column goes up in theGuardian





	i'll see your heart and i'll raise you mine

**Author's Note:**

> this is a coda to [you and I are an item (in today's paper)](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4775120). thank you anon for your donation to [msf](http://www.msf.org/) and for prompting it. hope you enjoy! :)
> 
> title taken from bell x1

"It wasn't like that, Mum," he whines in a whisper and slides out of bed. "Gem, get off the phone!"

"Whossit?" Niall props himself up with his elbows. 

"No one. Nothing. Go back to sleep."

Niall blinks his eyes open and says in the same hoarse voice, "If it's no one then come back to sleep with me."

Harry covers the phone with his hand, feeling his cheeks flush. He had never felt shy in his own home before, but the past few weeks – ever since and including their accidental blind date – have been full of firsts. "My mum and sister. They've seen the _Guardian_ column."

"Have they? Thought you grew up in a _Times_ household." Niall sits up, rubs at his unshaven face, and clambers out of bed, the morning sun taking licks at his naked back through the blinds.

Harry is watching Niall dress, half in a trance, when he hears his mother asking if something is wrong. "No, everything's fine.” He thinks about going out of the bedroom with the phone, but Niall is already doing that. 

" _Was_ he nice?"

“He was. Is. Um, he's here actually. We're sort of seeing each other?" 

“I thought you would be,” she tells him, chirpier than she has been in a while. “You both look so happy in the photos.”

“Yeah. Um, I didn’t know the paper’s already out.” He scrounges for a pair of shorts and settles on the pair Niall left behind last time. It has warm pockets. “How do you have a copy?”

“She has Goggle alerts for us both,” his sister chimes in. 

Harry fails to stop himself from snorting. “Google alerts? Why?”

“I always had a feeling you’d both do good things in life, maybe make the news for them.”

“Is this a good thing, though, Mum? He’s been immortalised in a national paper for lying and stealing someone else’s date.” 

“Hey,” he objects, and extricates himself from the conversation as quickly as he can.

The telly is on in the living room, but Niall is nowhere to be seen.

There is a small but loud thought in Harry’s head that Niall overheard him saying something he shouldn’t have on the phone, but maybe Niall just left to fetch a copy of the paper. He has been at Harry’s half a dozen times now. He probably knows about the newsagent’s round the corner. 

Harry is coming out of the bathroom, minty fresh for any and all trouble, when he sees Niall back in the kitchen, already busy with the coffee. 

"Where'd you go?" he asks lightly, sidling up to the counter. 

"Just went to borrow some sugar from upstairs," Niall says, as if it’s a thing people did in London _ever_. 

“Oh. Okay.”

Niall turns, eyes scanning his face. "You all right?"

"Yeah. Just didn't know if you were gonna be a while." 

Niall nods, getting back to pouring. He wipes the coffee droplets off the counter and bins the kitchen paper before he says, "What's that about us _sort of_ seeing each other? Have you been picking up other blind daters on the side?"

Harry shrugs, ducking a little under the cabinets to select a spoon for Niall’s sugar. "I didn't want to presume."

"No, that's my contribution to this relationship.” 

"Ha fucking ha." 

Harry still feels guilty about spending the evening as Niall’s blind date without letting on he wasn’t actually the Harry the _Guardian_ had set Niall up with. But Niall just used the word ‘relationship’ and unusually, it didn’t agitate Harry’s stomach like half-cooked pasta. If it’s meant to be, he should stop worrying about things.

He’s lying on the couch, reading the same passage in his book for the twentieth time, when he decides there’s nothing for it.

"What's mine?"

Niall looks away from the German football on the telly. "What's what's yours?"

"My contribution,” Harry says. “To this relationship," he adds, savouring the syllables. 

"You're funny,” Niall says, scratching his stubble. “Hot. Good with children, or so I’ve been told."

"I _am_ good with children." Harry gets up and stretches, leaving his book tented open on the couch. "I'm also _fascinating_ , _cheeky_ , and _sweet_."

Niall turns back to the telly, a small smile on his face. 

Harry quickly learned that with Niall in his life, there’s a certain amount of competing he’ll have to do against televised sports. He bends back down and reaches over Niall’s lap to take his empty cup, Niall’s hand coming up to steady him. “What d’you think about breakfast? There’s a place near the canal that does good omelettes.”

“Yeah. Could do,” Niall says, not letting go. Harry straightens and Niall’s hand slips down to cup his arse underneath the elastic of his shorts. “These look familiar,” he murmurs. 

“Breakfast,” Harry reminds him, and floats away.

"Do you want the shower first?" Niall calls to him.

"Not if you want it first," Harry says, putting the cups in the sink. “Because I'm sweet."

"Yes, you already said that."

"No, _you_ said that," he shouted over the running tap. 

He had never read other people’s opinions about himself before. It was mortifying at first, knowing that anyone in the world could read what Niall thought of the date, but there was also something stupidly comforting about seeing himself through Niall’s eyes. 

"Should've used my three words for _big-haired narcissist_ ," Niall says, coming close.

"That's two words.”

Harry feels Niall’s arms wrapping around him, effectively putting a halt to the washing up. "Big-haired, with the hyphen, narcissistic, pain-in-me-arse, with all the hyphens."

"That's—Yeah, that's three words," Harry admits, but only because Niall is making a meal of his nape.

“Meeting you that night is kind of a big deal for me, Harry. Column or no column.”

Harry wants to turn around, confess it’s the same for him, but his body won’t cooperate. “Me too,” he finally croaks back, eyes on the soap suds in the sink. “Meeting you.”

Niall scratches at Harry’s belly, shocking him into laughter. “Do you reckon we can both fit in your shower?”

“Should we give it a go?” Harry replies, tipping his head to the side and letting Niall’s kisses blaze up to his face, his cheek, the edge of his lips.

“Several, if that’s what it takes,” Niall says, mouth ungentle over Harry’s and hands very nice about everything.

~

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading. i'm also [fromward](http://fromward.tumblr.com) on tumblr.


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